NASA Is Sending An Autonomous Helicopter On Its Mars 2020 Rover Mission To Get Aerial Shots

NASA announced today that, when it sends another rover to Mars in July 2020 itĄŻll have a little companion with it. The space agency is sending a small autonomous chopper called the Mars Helicopter thatĄŻll capture a birdĄŻs-eye view of the planet.

Images courtesy: NASA

The chopper will be able to fly over ravines and other topographical features that the rover otherwise wouldnĄŻt be able to reach. However, it also has another purpose, one thatĄŻll in fact be fulfilled first. The minute the helicopter is released, NASA will be able to test MarsĄŻ atmosphere, which is 100 times thinner than that of Earth, to see if vehicles can stay airborne over the Red Planet.

The Mars Helicopter has been in the works at NASAĄŻs Jet Propulsion Laboratory(JPL) for the last four years, but the space agency had been trying to decide whether it would actually send the vehicle to Mars. It needed to determine how likely it was the chopper would even be able to fly, and whether it had enough of a budget to include the helicopter. Apparently, itĄŻs a yes to both now.

JPL engineers have been working to try and balance the helicopters weight and shape to give it the best chance of staying airborne. The highest a chopper has flown on Earth is 40,000 feet, but the Mars Helicopter will be flying in an atmosphere as thin as at 100,000 feet on Earth. Because of this, the helicopter weighs just 1.8 kg, and is about the size of small melon. Its twin rotors also move 10 times faster than the average helicopter.

The plan is for the helicopter to get to Mars while attached to the underbelly of the rover. When it finds a good place to deploy, the rover will set down the Mar Helicopter and roll away, leaving the chopper to take off on its own. It also wonĄŻt be possible to control the helicopter from Earth, as signals would take several minutes to reach it, so itĄŻll be doing five 90-second autonomous flights a day, over a month.

The Mars 2020 rover with the attached helicopter will launch on an Atlas V rocket, by the United Launch Alliance, from Cape Canaveral in Florida in July 2020. ItĄŻs expected to make landfall on Mars by February 2021.

If the Mars Helicopter crashes and burns from the get go, it at least wonĄŻt affect the rest of the 2020 mission with the new rover. But if it manages to stay afloat, itĄŻll give us some of the best aerial pictures of Mars weĄŻve ever seen, not to mention find geographical features we otherwise wouldnĄŻt have been able to go near. It would also mean, we can send more fliers to Mars in the future.